A.I. Is Lying to You. Here’s How to Fight Back.; The New York Times, October 6, 2026

Anthony Vinci , The New York Times; A.I. Is Lying to You. Here’s How to Fight Back.

"Portal Kombat’s goal is to influence these models so that they will pass along propaganda to trusting users in response to questions. Portal Kombat pushed over 3.6 million stories across hundreds of independent websites in dozens of languages in 2024, according to NewsGuard, an organization that tracks online disinformation. NewsGuard researchers systematically tested A.I. chat systems and found that Portal Kombat propaganda was regularly provided to users.

Large language model influence operations are just one way that America’s adversaries are using A.I. to try to steer its politics. China directs its A.I. platforms to push false claims about the treatment of Uyghurs and to censor dissent and criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. Russia is using A.I. to generate scores of news websites to turn Americans against democracy and Western alliances. Like many, these adversaries use A.I. to create fake written, audio or video content that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing."

ICE Agent Not ‘Run Over’ in Minneapolis: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week; NewsGuard's Reality Check, January 9, 2026

 NewsGuard's Reality Check ; ICE Agent Not ‘Run Over’ in Minneapolis: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week

[Kip Currier: The fact-checking and news and information quality assessment organization NewsGuard serves as a crucial countervailing force to disinformation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.

This week, NewsGuard debunked falsehoods about an ICE agent alleged to have been run over in Minneapolis by Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by the agent on January 7, 2026.

In my recently published Ethics, Information, and Technology book, I profile NewsGuard's debunking of the utterly untrue claims of pet-eating by immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, which was amplified by Donald Trump and JD Vance during the 2024 Presidential election.]

NewsGuard Wants to Fight Fake News With Humans, Not Algorithms; Wired, August 23, 2018

Issie Lapowsky, Wired; NewsGuard Wants to Fight Fake News With Humans, Not Algorithms

Kip Currier: I just heard veteran journalist Steve Brill talking about a new information assessment tool called NewsGuard on MSNBC program Andrea Mitchell Reports. Brill delivered this money quote on how NewsGuard provides evaluation of often-visited Internet sites by human (translation: not AI!) experts:

"That's what librarians have been doing since the invention of the library." 

--Steve Brill, August 24, 2018,
Andrea Mitchell Reports Program, MSNBC

[Excerpt]

"The patchwork nature of promoting trustworthy sources online has had the unintended consequence of seeding fears of bias. 

That's one reason why a group of journalists and media executives are launching a tool called NewsGuard, a browser plug-in for Chrome and Microsoft Edge that transcends platforms, giving trustworthiness ratings to most of the internet's top-trafficked sites. Those ratings are based on assessments from an actual newsroom of dozens of reporters who comprise NewsGuard's staff. They hail from a range of news organizations, including New York Daily News and GQ. Together, they've spent the last several months scoring thousands of news sites."